The Early Years

by Vincent Caggiano

Overview

THE EARLY YEARS is part one of a biography about growing up in New York City during the 1930's and 40's. This part spans approximately 80 years, including the 1930's depression years, the rise of the mafia, and the author's brush with it.

The first immigrants came from Caggiano, a small Italian village in the south of Italy, near Pompeii and Sorrento. Settling in the East side of NYC along the East River, the family is confronted with mafia hoodlums almost immediately, and the mafia continues to plague the Caggianos for three generations.

The depression years are very harsh requiring everyone to contribute to support the family, including scavenging at the local garbage dump. Sickness is commonplace and early deaths are every day events. Half the children born will die before reaching age 10. Those that survive the terrible hardships, two world wars, and the Korea war, will find a bright future.

Part two spans 60 years, from the mid 1950's to the present, and includes the author's professional life in research at Johns Hopkins University and Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. This section also includes a brief description of the author's part in developing the Global Positioning System (GPS) that we have come to accept and use almost daily.

After his business in the new area of Biomedical Engineering fails, Vincent buys a decrepit marina in Virginia to embark on a new career in boating enterprises. After 30 years of an unhappy marriage and sexual frustration, the author finally succumbs to an extra-marital affair which, fortuitously ends the marriage.

On the cusp of starting a new life, the author is faced with a new dilemma, caring for his aging parents, alone, since his sibling sister refuses to assist in their care.

Struggling back from the abyss of complete nervous breakdown, he gradually emerges to find a well deserved, but unfortunately, temporary happiness. His adult children refuse further association with him. This is the ultimate price to pay for survival, extreme duress, and family disintegration.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940044344655
Publisher:	Vincent Caggiano
Publication date:	02/08/2013
Sold by:	Smashwords
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Vincent Caggiano is a graduate of The University of Maryland with degrees in electrical engineering and applied math. He was inaugurated into the honor societies Tau Beta Pi and Eta Kappa Nu, and continued with post-grad work at The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in Biomedical Engineering.

While continuing his studies, Vincent worked at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab starting as an academic scholarship in 1955, and later as a research engineer, he worked on missile programs, artificial intelligence, space studies including a Mars probe, and early satellite programs. During the latter, he was a member of the team that developed GPS, a story that he hopes to write about in another book. During this period he also taught computer logic in the University of Maryland graduate school.

His interest in artificial intelligence led to an offer to join a team at The Walter Reed Institute of Research in Washington DC, to study single brain cells. His innovative approach resulted in the development of new instruments to record single brain cell activity, and later he was part of several teams studying Parkinson disease, physiological shock, patient monitoring systems, and a variety of other programs, where he developed additional new instruments.

Vincent founded Biomedical Electronics, a small company devoted to the development of patient monitoring and medical instruments. This company was integrated into ILC Industries, the supplier of the early space suits for astronauts. After retiring from scientific areas of endeavor, Vincent's attention turned to boating and marine activities in Virginia, then retirement.

Vincent is now retired and lives in Florida but continues to write, mostly fiction, a new venue for him. He has previously published 25 technical articles and research papers as well as chapters in books, and a text book on computer logic.